Amar'e Stoudemire Opts Out: Could He Soar To Denver and Unite With Melo?

While seemingly all the news surrounding this, the biggest free agency in the history of the NBA--and likely all sports in general--revolves around LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, there are many stellar superstars still available outside of the big three.

Outside of Bosh, the most notable and best big man out there is Amar'e Stoudemire, recently of the Phoenix Suns. Stoudemire, after hours of negotiations with Suns owner Robert Sarver yesterday, has decided to opt out of his current contract that would have paid him $17.6 Million this season.

Stoudemire's agent Happy Walters spoke to Yahoo! Sports today.

"The offer isn’t where it needs to be yet, but we’ve had a good open, cordial dialogue with the Suns. Like Dirk Nowitzki and Paul Pierce, we’re exercising the opt out and we’ll see what presents itself for Amar’e on the market,” Walters said.

What should present itself is an aggressive effort by the Denver Nuggets to go out and get the star, Stoudemire.

The Nuggets, who won 50+ games in the last three straight seasons for the first time in their NBA history, are in desperate need of a dominant big man for a multitude of reasons.

First and foremost, starting power forward Kenyon Martin is aging quickly and after missing the last couple months of the regular season and playoffs, will reportedly not be ready to go when training camp starts. Beyond that, the oft-injured K-Mart is entering the final year of his contract meaning he will likely not be with the Nuggets if basketball is played in 2011-12.

Next, the Nuggets best backup big man, Chris "Birdman" Andersen will also reportedly not be ready for training camp, and he's proven to be more an asset while playing less minutes, not more like in 2009-10.

But the most glaring reason that the Nuggets need to add a domineering big man is to keep star Carmelo Anthony satisfied--and to keep him in Denver.

He was recently offered a three-year extension worth $65 Million to stay with the Nuggets, something he is currently mulling over as he likely waits to see if Denver will add a big through free agency.

The Denver Post's Mark Kizla wrote an opinion column for today's paper that the Nuggets should trade Anthony if he doesn't sign a deal with Denver by winter. Which, was subsequently blown up by ESPN's bottom line saying that "Nuggets prepared to trade Carmelo Anthony rather than allow him to leave as free agent after next season, Denver Post reports."

By getting Amar'e Stoudemire to come to the Mile High City, the Nuggets can kill three birds with one stone. Denver could get rid of the injury-plagued and overpaid Kenyon Martin, while bringing in a superstar in Stoudemire, which in-turn will keep Carmelo Anthony happy and make his choice of signing with the Nuggets much easier.

But how do they bring Stoudemire to Denver?

The Nuggets front office needs to offer the Suns a sign-and-trade for Kenyon Martin and his soon-to-be expiring contract.

Amar'e is testing the free agent waters, and if the Nuggets can jump on his bandwagon early, they could be the front-runners in the race for the star center-forward.

Stoudemire showed he still has a bit of allegiance to the Suns by sitting down with them for hours yesterday, so working a sign-and-trade is definitely not out of the question.

Stoudemire averaged 23.1 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game in 2009-10 and he could be a hugely important piece the the puzzle in Denver.

If the Nuggets can land him, their starting five would look a little something like this; Chauncey Billups, Arron Afflalo, Carmelo Anthony, Nene at power forward, and Stoudemire at center.

Moving Nene to his natural power forward position could possibly help the lost player find his way once again, and playing with Stoudemire's intensity could spark something in Nene.

Some of the scoring pressures would be taken off of Chauncey Billups, who could move back to being the facilitator once again, and teams wouldn't be able to double and triple Carmelo as easily anymore with Stoudemire looming under the hoop.

In all, this move makes nothing but sense for the Nuggets, and the ball is in their court starting at 12:01 a.m. ET Thursday.

Can they pull it off? No doubt. But will the Denver FO be able to make this awesome acquisition? Nuggets' fans better hope so, or they may see the face of the franchise in Carmelo Anthony fly away.

Rich Kurtzman is a Colorado State Alumnus and a freelance journalist. Along with being the Denver Nuggets Featured Columnist for bleacherreport.com, Kurtzman is the Denver Broncos FC for NFLTouchdown.com, the CSU Rams Examiner and Fort Collins Beer Bars Examiner for examiner.com and the Colorado/Utah Correspondent for stadiumjourney.com.

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